Floods in southern Brazil force 70,000 from homes

Nearly 70,000 people have been forced from their homes amid deadly flooding, mudslides and torrential storms in southern Brazil, with the major city of Porto Alegre particularly hard-hit, the country's civil defense agency said on Saturday.

Raging floodwaters have left at least 57 people dead, 74 injured and another 67 missing, the civil defense agency said.

The toll did not include two people who died in an explosion at a flooded gas station in Porto Alegre, witnessed by an AFP journalist, where rescue crews were attempting to refuel.

Fast-rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were straining dams and particularly threatening economically important Porto Alegre, a city of 1.4 million.

The Guaiba River, which flows through the city, is at a historic high of 5.04 meters, well above the 4.76 meters that had stood as a record since devastating 1941 floods.

Authorities were scrambling to evacuate swamped neighborhoods as residents struggled in chaotic conditions to find their way to safety.

In addition to the 69,200 residents forced from their homes, the civil defense agency also said more than a million people lacked access to potable water amid the flooding, describing damage as incalculable.

In many places, long lines formed as people tried to board buses, although bus services to and from the city center were canceled.

The Porto Alegre international airport suspended all flights on Friday for an undetermined period.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted a video of a helicopter depositing a soldier atop a house, where he used a brick to pound a hole in the roof and rescue a baby wrapped in a blanket.

In a live transmission on Instagram, Governor Leite said the situation was "absolutely unprecedented," the worst in the history of the state, home to agroindustrial production of soy, rice, wheat and corn.

The rains also affected the southern state of Santa Catarina, where one man died on Friday when his car was swept away by raging floodwaters in the municipality of Ipira.

Lula, who visited the region on Thursday, blamed the disaster on climate change.

The devastating storms were the result of a "disastrous cocktail" of global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, climatologist Francisco Eliseu Aquino told AFP on Friday.

South America's largest country has recently experienced a string of extreme weather events, including a cyclone in September that claimed at least 31 lives.

(With input from AFP)